Alice Springs! Got here a few days ago and enjoy doing nothing but chilling, reading and laying by the pool! The tour I did to get here was fantastic (Groovy Grape's Desert Patrol). Our guide, Johnny, was a fantastic guy and the group was pretty good too. Five Dutchies, so spoke a lot of Dutch again, which had been a while. So the tour: Day one took us to Flinders Ranges. We spent the night in a bunkhouse and enjoyed our dinner and drinks while getting to know each other a bit. The next morning we set off to Williams Creek, where we spent the night a the cattle station, in our swags. Everyone heart dingo's at night, but I was sound asleep. Johnny had promised us frustrated cowboys at the Williams Creek Hotel but we didn't see any. Would have been fun, but heck.
Next day's destination was Coober Pedy. On the way there we stopped for lunch at the Farina Township, now ruins, but a real township in the days of the Old Ghan railway. We also visited Talk Alf, a crazy Dutchie who declared his own republic and makes talkstone sculptures. On top of that, he developed a whole theory on the alfabet. Very interesting man. Coober Pedy itself was interesting too. About 60% of the people there live underground, you can dug your own house there. Most live of the opal mining. Every Thursday a load of fruit and veggies arrives in the shop and that's it for that week. I couldn't live there, would go nuts.
The next night was at Kings Creek Station, a huge cattle station with camping facilities. Another night in my swag, I just love sleeping under the stars in them! The next morning (early, again) we drove to Kings Canyon for the best walk of the trip: up the Canyon. It was amazing. Just soooo impressive and stunning. Part of Prisiclla was filmed here, and we danced around on the Priscilla rock like happy kids, we all loved it so much! This was pretty much the end of the tour, as we got back to the camp for lunch and then drove to Alice as fast as possible.
I am now staying in Melanka, the motel part. Not fantastic but good enough, and with the luxury of en en-suite. It's just Steve and me now in a six bed dorm so that's pretty good. Sam and JP are still here as well, all the others have gone. With Judith and Ellen I visited the Flying Doctors, apart from that I just enjoy being lazy. Tomorrow, Steve, Sam and I will go to Darwin on the Wayward Bus. See how that is!
